'Luis Suarez ended my career early – stomp made my joint explode like a walnut'

Spanish goalkeeper Gorka Giralt has opened up about the unfortunate incident involving Luis Suarez that led to his early retirement from football.

The incident occurred in January 2022 when the former Liverpool striker accidentally stepped on Giralt’s hand during a Copa del Rey game between Atletico Madrid and third-tier side Rayo Majadahonda. Now working as a goalkeeping coach at Las Rozas, Giralt recently shared details of the traumatic event on ‘El Chiringuito’.

“My joint exploded into pieces, like a walnut,” Giralt said on the show. “Suarez tries to finish with a goal, but unfortunately, he steps on the joint of one of my hands.”

Despite the severity of the injury, Giralt holds no grudges against Suarez, who reached out to him after the accident to apologise and gift him his match shirt.

Giralt underwent three surgeries in an attempt to repair his hand, as per Marca. He recalled: “At that moment, I didn’t feel it and the first thing I did was check if the ball had gone out. After that my hand started to get cramped. When I took off the glove it moved very strangely… in jumps. I was very unlucky, but I don’t think about it.”

While this incident was accidental, Suarez has been involved in several controversies throughout his career, with perhaps the most infamous being his actions at the 2010 World Cup. During the intense quarter-final match between Uruguay and Ghana, with scores tied at 1-1 and extra time ticking away, Dominic Adiyiah’s goal-bound effort was illegally thwarted by Luis Suarez’s handball on the line.

Suarez received a red card for his deliberate actions, but Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan agonizingly hit the bar with the subsequent penalty, paving the way for Uruguay to secure their place in the semi-finals.

Renowned not just for his football talents but also for his notorious biting incidents, Suarez once lost his temper during a clash between Ajax and PSV Eindhoven in 2010. He lashed out with his teeth at Otman Bakkal, which initially resulted in Ajax sanctioning him internally before the Dutch FA imposed a seven-league-game suspension.

Further incidents followed against Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic when Suarez played for Liverpool and with former Italian international Giorgio Chiellini on the international stage.

Suarez was banned for 10 Premier League games for the incident with Ivanovic despite the bite being missed by the on-pitch officials, meaning he still had time to fire home a stoppage-time equaliser for the Reds against Chelsea.

Suarez was also handed a nine-match ban for the incident with Chiellini. However, he managed to finish that match and help Uruguay progress to the last 16 of the 2014 World Cup at Italy’s expense. Suarez later apologised to Chiellini for what he described as “the physical result of a bite in the collision he suffered with me.”